Manau-Gododdin

Located on a narrow strip of land on the south coast of the Firth of Forth, Manau-Gododdin was a small and little-known sub-kingdom of Goutodin. North of the Forth was Pictish Manau, and it is possible that the people of Manau-Gododdin may have been Picts under Votadini overlordship. This overlordship may have stemmed from the early second century when Votadini troops in the pay of Rome were stationed within Manau territory to fend off Pictish attacks. When the Romans withdrew from Britain, the Votadini retreated to the other side of the Forth, but kept hold of the Pictish land to the south.

Satellite image of the Firth of Forth. The Sub-Kingdom of Manau-Gododdin existed in a narrow strip on the south side of the estuary. North of the Forth, were the Manau Picts. To the south was the Kingdom of Goutodin, the Votadini overlords of Manau-Gododdin.

Manau-Gododdin’s most famous son is undoubtedly Cunedda Wlendig, an early fifth century chieftain and sub-king who migrated to Wales, founded the Kingdom of Gwynedd and started a riyal dynasty from which Welsh nobility claimed descent for centuries afterward.  By the late fifth century, Manau-Gododdin appears to have lost its independent identity, implying the sub-kingdom had been brought under the direct control of Goutodin. From then, the people of Manau-Gododdin presumably shared the same fortunes as their overlords; it is very likely warriors from Manau-Gododdin were involved in Morgan Bulc’s fruitless efforts to regain Bernaccia in 590 and the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Caltreath in 597.

Squeezed by the Picts expanding southwards and the Northumbrians expanding northwards, Manau-Gododdin fell along with Goutodin in 638. By the middle of the seventh century, the Goutodin territories had been absorbed into an increasingly powerful Kingdom of Northumbria.Three centuries later, in 975, the Goutodin territories were transferred to the Scottish Crown.

Cunedda Wledig of Manau-Gododdin (fl. 430)

Cunedda Wledig was a powerful warrior prince from Manau-Gododdin who migrated to Wales in the early fifth century and founded a dynasty from which Welsh nobility would claim ancestry for centuries afterward.

According to tradition, Cunedda was descended from a line of Votadini chieftains whose Latinised names suggest they ruled in some sort of official Roman capacity north of Hadrian’s Wall. By Cunedda’s time, the Manau-Gododdin was a sub-kingdom of Goutodin and it is likely that Cunedda was some sort of leader or sub-king. Not much is known of his life in the north. Cunedda must have been a charismatic warrior as he was able to rally the beleaguered Romano-British to fight off constant Irish and Pictish raids. Perhaps because of his actions, Cunedda managed to secure a politically advantageous marriage to Gwawl, a daughter of Coel Hen, and is claimed to have had nine sons and at least two daughters.

At some point in the early fifth century, maybe around 430, Cunedda and his warband migrated southwest to Wales. His wife, Gwawl, appears to have gone with him, as did his younger sons. His eldest son, Typaun, remained behind in Manau-Gododdin and presumably inherited whatever role it was that Cunedda relinquished when he left. According to legend, Cunedda was offered land in return for ousting Irish raiders (named as the Ui Liathain from Munster) who had invaded and settled along the Welsh coastline during the last century. Nennius, writing centuries later, wrote that Cunedda and his warband arrived in Wales “and with great slaughter they drove out from these regions the Scotti who never returned again to inhabit them”.

Alternatively, it has been suggested that Cunedda may have sailed down the Irish Sea of his own volition and invaded North Wales, establishing himself a kingdom during the chaos that resulted from a plague that swept southern Britain in 446 and the subsequent Saxon laeti revolt.

With only the westernmost parts of Wales remaining in Irish hands, Cunedda settled down in Gwynedd and founded both a kingdom and a dynasty. His sons went on to found royal dynasties of their own in kingdoms  which would later be named after them; Ceredigion, Meirionnydd, Ysfeilion, Rhufoniog, Dunoding, Afflogion and Edeyrnion.

Goutodin / Gododdin

Goutodin was a British kingdom of the Votadini, an Iron Age Celtic tribe whose territory stretched from the Firth of Forth to the Tyne. After the Roman withdrawal in the early fifth century, the lands of the Votadini became part of the Hen Ogledd, the Old North, which was ruled from Ebrauc (York) by Coel Hen. After the death of Coel Hen in about 420, the Old North gradually splintered into smaller kingdoms. By 470, the Kingdom of Goutodin had emerged in the northern territory of the Votadini, centred on the citadels of Din Eidyn (Edinburgh) and Trapain Law (Haddington). In the time between Coel Hen’s death and its emergence as an independent kingdom, the Goutodin territory may have been ruled by Alt Clut’s powerful first king, Coroticus, or possibly was governed from Ebrauc by Coel Hen’s successor. The southern half of the Votadini lands became Bernaccia and the border between the two kingdoms was likely at Berwick. To the north was Manau-Gododdin, a small but important sub-kingdom and a buffer against the Picts.

Map showing the Kingdom of Goutodin / Gododdin and its neighbours in c.500

The first king of Goutodin was King Lot, but little is known of his reign in the late fifth century. His son, Gawain, succeeded him in 490 but appears to have been absent from the kingdom for most of his reign as various sources place him first in Rheged and then in Wales. Bran Hen, King of Bernaccia, either took the opportunity and seized Goutodin or was given care of the kingdom by the absent Gawain. Sometime later, Bran Hen handed control of Bernaccia to his young nephew, Morcant Bulc, and kept hold of Goutodin for himself.

In Bernaccia, the Angle laeti revolted in 547, seized the kingdom and kicked Morcant out. The dispossessed king fled north to Goutodin and took refuge in his uncle’s court. Morcant became King of Goutodin after Bran Hen’s death (and presumably in Gawain’s continued absence) but never gave up on regaining his lost kingdom. By 590, Morcant had entered into an alliance with the kings of Alt Clut, Rheged and Elmet, three northern kingdoms who, like Goutodin, felt threatened by the Anglian presence on their borders. The confederation laid siege to Ynys Mencaut (Lindisfarne) the same year and almost succeeded in driving the Bernicians into the sea, but Morcant fatally weakened his own cause by ordering the assassination of King Urien of Rheged. The confederation fell apart, Morcant Bulc disappeared from the records and the Angles regained Bernicia.

The last two British kings of Goutodin, Cynan and Mynyddog Mwynfawr, ruled simultaneously from 590, either as co-rulers, or, more likely, within a divided kingdom with Cynan ruling East Lothian from Trapain Law and Mynyddog Mwynfawr ruling West Lothian from Din Eidyn. The troubled last years of Goutodin are commemorated by a seventh century Welsh poem, Y Gododdin, which records an army of northern warriors from Goutodin, Elmet and Rheged marching south with the intent of retaking Ebrauc from the Angles. Right at the end of the sixth century, in 597, the northern British clashed with a Northumbrian army under Aethelfrith at the Battle of Caltreath (Catterick, in North Yorkshire). The northern British were decimated and Y Gododdin mourns the loss of so many warriors of the Old North. Severely weakened by the defeat, Goutodin managed to limp on for another forty years until 638 when, after King Oswald's capture of Trapain Law and siege of Din Eidyn, Goutodin finally fell to Bernicia.

Coroticus of Alt Clut (c.410 - c.450)

The first king of Alt Clut, Coroticus was a powerful Celtic monarch who ruled a considerable swathe of southern Scotland from his base on Dumbarton Rock. The history of Alt Clut during the fifth and sixth centuries is murky at best and what little is known comes from Irish and Welsh sources. Because of this, Coroticus is sometimes referred to as Ceretic Guletic, the Welsh version of his name.

The Harleian genealogies list Coroticus as the son of Cynloup, the grandson of Quintillus and the great-grandson of Clemens. The Roman names of his grandfather and great-grandfather suggest that Coroticus descended from Damnonii leaders who, although they lived some way north of Hadrian’s Wall, were Romanised to some extent. However, Coroticus is a British name and it has been suggested that he was named after Caratacus of the Catuvellauni, a then-legendary leader of a British revolt against the Romans.

Not much is known of his reign in the dark days of sub-Roman Britain. Coroticus was almost certainly the Brittonic warrior addressed in a letter written by St. Patrick. In the letter St Patrick bemoans the capture and enslavement of Irish Christians and their sale to pagans before excommunicating Coroticus and his men. It’s possible that St. Patrick’s letter referred to a bloody raid on Ireland by Coroticus and his men which resulted in the deaths of many Irish, some of which were Christian converts, and others carried back to sell as slaves. Coroticus’s response to the letter, if any, has gone unrecorded.

Stained glass window in Carlow Cathedral, Ireland, showing St. Patrick preaching to the kings.

It’s thought that Coroticus died around 450 and was succeeded either by his son, Cinuit, or possibly his grandson, Dumnagual Hen. His descendants went on to rule kingdoms as far south as the Isle of Man and Alt Clut itself would survive until the late ninth century when Dumbarton would be captured and sacked by the Norse kings of Dublin.

Alt Clut

The Damnonii, a tribe never fully conquered by the Romans, had forged a kingdom by the mid-fourth century in modern day Strathclyde. The kingdom took its name from the Brythonic name of its capital, Alt Clut. Meaning ‘Rock of the Clyde’, the place is now known as Dumbarton. The exact borders of Alt Clut are unclear (and probably shifted regularly) but the kingdom would have bordered Pictland to the north, Goutodin to the east and Caer Guendoleu and Galwyddel to the south.

Map showing Alt Clut and its neighbours in c.700 AD.

For the early part of its history, Alt Clut was an obscure kingdom. What little is known about it comes from odd mentions in Welsh and Irish sources. Only two kings from before the seventh century are known; Coroticus who reigned in the second half of the fifth century and his descendent, Rhydderch Hael, who was king in the late sixth century. Their names suggest Alt Clut, or its ruling nobility at least, was Christian but how this very early Christianisation occurred is unclear and even the life of St Kentigern, Strathclyde’s very own missionary, is shadowy.

The second half of the sixth century was dominated by the loss of Bernaccia to Angle settlers. The dispossessed Morcant Bulc and Rhydderch of Alt Clut formed a coalition with the kings of Elmet and Rheged. This northern British coalition campaigned against the Bernician Angles and laid siege to Ynys Metcaut in 590. The Bernicians were very nearly driven out of the north, but the coalition was fatally weakened by the assassination of Urien of Rheged.

Dumbarton Rock, the 'Rock of the Clyde' that gave its name to the kingdom of Alt Clut.

By 632, the kingdom of Elmet had fallen to the resurgent Bernician Angles. A small enclave managed to survive huddled along Alt Clut’s southern border but the northern Britons no doubt sighed in relief when the Northumbrians turned their attention to southwards expansion. However, the later history of Alt Clut was far from peaceful. There was major conflicts with Dal Riata in 642, 711, and 717. Oengus of Pictland led two campaigns to conquer Alt Clut in the eighth century but was beaten back each time. In 756, the Pictish king teamed up with Eadberht of Northumbria and launched a third attack which very nearly succeeded but both the Picts and the Northumrbrians were almost destroyed in a desperate reversal by Alt Clut. As well as these major events, there were likely numerous smaller battles as the big four northern kingdoms – Alt Clut, Bernicia, Dal Riata and Pictland – squabbled for overlordship of the small, nameless chiefdoms to the south and east.

Very little is heard of Alt Clut until the late ninth century, implying the kingdom enjoyed a period of relative peace. The only mention of Alt Clut in the texts concerns the burning of Dumbarton in 780, but by whom and for what reason are unknown. In 870, Alt Clut was besieged by ‘black pagans’, a Viking army led by Olaf the White and Ivarr the Boneless, Norse kings of Dublin. Dumbarton was destroyed, huge numbers of captives were taken as slaves and the last British king of Alt Clut, Arthgal, was executed. The ruling British dynasty of Alt Clut ended, and the kingdom became a semi-independent territory of the Scots, gradually becoming known as Strathclyde.